22 



CHAPTER II. 



PAPAVEElCEJE 

 BEEBEKIDACEJ3. 



" We are the sweet flowers 



Born of sunny showers, 

 Think whene'er you see us what our beauty saith ; 



Utterance mute and bright 



Of some unknown delight, 

 We fill the air with pleasure by our simple breath. 



All who see us love us ; 



We befit all places ; 

 Unto sorrow we give smiles, and unto graces graces." 



LEIGH HUNT. 



THE second order of Thalamiflorals has but few British repre- 

 sentatives ; but among these is the most attractive of all our 

 wild flowers, the white Water Lily. Distinguished from the 

 Ranunculaceso by its long-enduring calyx and carpels with solid 

 partition, the members of this order are like their predecessors 

 in their numerous stamens and pistils. The first white Water 

 Lilies I ever saw were in a pond near Copgrove, in Yorkshire. 

 I was but a little child, but I stood rapt in amazement. Had I 

 read Walter Scott's poems, I might have described the flower 

 in his words : 



" The Water Lily to the light 

 Her chalice reared of silver bright." 



As it was, I only conceived an absorbing desire to possess one. 

 They were quite beyond reach, and I could not realise my 

 desire ; and I remember that for years the possession of Water 

 Lilies mingled in every airy castle that I built. Five years 

 ago I was with a pic-nic party at a pretty lake in Cheshire. 

 We were all near relations brothers and sisters, and cousins 

 scarcely differing from brothers and sisters. Again I beheld 



